Whilst perusing old notes on the Diwan (Lange's translation) as well as other sources, we wanted to revisit the early references to the Kindin of Ahir in Borno mahrams originally composed in the late 12th century. In H.R. Palmer's Bornu Sahara and Sudan, 2 mahrams dated to 1184 and 1192 are said to have been composed during the reign of Abdallah Bikur (Palmer 17). However, the regnal lengths in Dierk Lange's chronology challenges this. According to Lange's study of the Sayfawa dynasty, Abd Allah Bakuru likely reigned c.1166-c.1182 (Lange 70). However, it is possible that the mahrams translated and published by Palmer were copies which contained errors or mistakes in the dates. Without a closer look at the Arabic originals used by Palmer and researching other mahrams perhaps left in private collections, we cannot confirm or deny this. However, it is likely that Lange's chronology is more accurate and reliable than that proposed by Palmer.
Moving on to the mahrams in question, entitled "Abdallah Bikur" (1184 CE) and "Dirkuma Ibrahim" (1192 CE) by Palmer, one finds reference to conflict between the "Kindin Ahir" and the people of Dirku, in the Kawar oasis. The first one begins by alerting the reader to its purpose of elucidating the origin of the Beni Mukhtar (Palmer 17). Then, the narrative shifts to recounting a kidnapping of two Dirku girls by two sons of Sultan Sule of Ahir. Sule, perhaps a shortened form of Sulayman, is also mentioned in the mahram dated to 1192. However, in the 1184 incident, princes (maina) of Dirku named Bagarma, Fatar and Ali retrieved their daughters. This led to a Tuareg counterattack as the Dirku princes killed the Kindin princes. Unfortunately, Dirku was unable to withstand the Tuareg attack, so the residents fled to the "Birni" of Abdallah Bikur. Whether or not the mai lived in a birni-styled home is unclear, but this was presumably Njimi. Fortunately for Dirku, the powerful Kanem mai was able to intercede by offering the Kindin 3 non-noble subjects in exchange for the deaths of the two princes. This account suggests the rulers of Kanem also oversaw Kawar, or at least were recognized as a powerful intermediary. Furthermore, the offering of 3 non-nobles for the killing of two Kindin princes may also be a hint of the greater power of Kanem.
The next mahram, from 1192, focuses on a conflict over camel theft between the Kindin of Ahir and Dirku. It also begins with a reference to the origin of the Beni Mukhtar, whose original home was among the Tura Beni Habibi, before shifting to a narrative of conflict between Sule of Ahir and Dirku. According to this text, the Kindin of Ahir could not commandeer camels of Bure in war (Palmer 18). The text, at least as translated by Palmer, is rather difficult to interpret. It also alludes to the flight of the Dirku people to king Bikur of Kanem for protection in 1192. If the date is not an error for the conflict alluded to in the previous mahram, then the residents of what may have been Tamalma (Palmer speculates the use of the title Amarma is a reference to this part of Kawar) had also sought protection from Kanem. Moreover, the genealogy of Dirkuma Ibrahim alludes to ancestors whose titles, Zeilama, suggest ties to Zawila in the Fezzan. In other words, the rulers of Dirku in Kawar were closely linked to the Fezzan and may have once ruled there or held titles as representatives of Kanem's interest there in the early 12th century or 11th century.
Djibo Hamani's map of Tuareg migrations toward Ayar in Au carrefour du Soudan et de la Berbérie: le sultanat touareg de l'Ayar. Note that the Kel Ayar spent time in Jado and then remained in eastern Ayar. While other groups also migrated toward the east of Ayar, the Kel Ayar may have already had closer contacts with Kawar.
So, what do the mahrams tell us? If the years are accurate, perhaps we should be looking more closely at Abd Allah Bakuru's son, the first "black mai" (Lange 71). If, however, we accept that the sultan at the time was indeed Abd Allah Bakuru whose reign fell in between 1166 and 1182, we can find intriguing clues from the Diwan. After all, the Diwan indicates that Abd Allah Bakuru's grandmother, F. Sama, gifted 100 camels to him and 100 camels of another type to his brother. Lange interprets the Diwan as suggesting the F. Sama named here was the grandmother of Abd Allah Bakuru, but it is possible she was the mother of his grandfather, Bir (reigned c. 1140-1166). According to the Diwan, this F. Sama was also the daughter of a man named S.karam of the Kay tribe (Lange 69). If the Kay, or Kayi, were already significant in Kawar, particularly at Dirku, perhaps the great-grandmother of Abd Allah Bakuru linked him genealogically to the local elites of Dirku. In fact, as early as Bulu, the rulers of Kanem appear to have had links to Dirku, since his mother was said to be of the Kay of D.r.q. (Dirku) in the Diwan (Lange 67). Moreover, the Diwan also mentions Dirku as one of the sites where Arku established 300 slaves during his reign (c.1023-1067). Perhaps most important in what the Diwan demonstrates is the great wealth in camels of F.Sama and their essential role in the economic life of Kawar. The second mahram indicates this by referring to the area's protection under Kanem and the long-standing ties between the Sayfawa and local elites in Dirku and other parts of Kawar, including protecting their camel herds.
However, from reading Ibn Said's account of Kanem during the reign of Dunama Dibalemi, which borrows largely from a lost work by Ibn Fatima, we learn that the ruler of Kanem used Berbers he forced to convert to Islam for their camels and as troops for raids (Hopkins & Levtzion 188). If these "Berbers" were the Kindin of Ahir (broadly conceived), then one might be able to surmise that the rulers of Kanem had already vassalized or imposed tribute and camel supplies on some of the Berbers to the west of Kawar before the reign of Dunama Dibalemi. If so, so then the mahram's reference to the Kindin under Sule commandeering camels in war may be alluding to Kindin subjects of Kanem forcibly using camels from another province of Kanem to meet their obligations to the mai. This is a bit of a leap, but would suggest that some of the Kel Ayar Tuareg (or their ancestors) had perhaps been Islamized by Kanem and tributaries of the Sayfawa dynasty by the reign of Abd Allah Bakuru or his son, Salmama.
But who was this Kindin king, Sule? Revisiting Djibo Hamani's study of the Sultanate of Agades offers some tantalizing possibilities. According to Hamani, the Kel Away have traditions of passing through Kawar before settling in Ayar. Hamani interprets oral traditions as best supporting a timeline of a 12th century migration from the Fezzan by the Kel Away (Hamani 88). If so, the group's time at Jado and in Kawar would have brought them in contact with Kawar's population at centers like Dirku. While the Kel Away later established themselves in Ayar, they often nomadized in the northeastern part of Ayar, where contacts with Kawar could have been maintained even before the Kel Away seized control of Kawar's salt trade in the 18th century. Alternatively, the Kel Away or other future Kel Ayar groups may be descendants of the "Lamta" said to live between Zawila and Kawar, mentioned by al-Ya'qubi in the late 9th century (Hopkins & Levtzion 22). Perhaps some of the Berber Muslims in Kawar at this time were Lamta? Regardless, it is possible the Kel Away may have become subjects of Kanem (however loosely) during the 12th century. Instead of a sultan or king, Sule may have been an ag-gode of the Kel Away or tribal chief of another Kel Ayar group who passed through Djado and neighbored Kawar across the Ténéré Desert. It is difficult to say there was any Ayar "king" of the region at this time, and the traditions of Borno's 'rule' of Ayar seem to date it to the 1300s and 1400s, particularly raids from Borno and the seizure of Tuareg girls from wives and concubines (Hamani 133-135). The Sultan of Ahir described by al-Umari appears to have no connection to the later Sultanate established in the early 1400s, though it was politically independent and may have been a loose confederation (Hopkins & Levtzion 274.
Unfortunately, many of details of the episodes of Kanem's intervention in Ayar and Kawar relations in the late 12th century remain elusive. It it possible the accounts described in the mahrams published by Palmer are indeed referring to Tuareg relations with Kawar and Kanem that suggest Kanem's growing influence over the Kel Ayar in the 1100s. In terms of a specific Tuareg group, the Kel Away appear to be good candidates, if one accepts that they began migrating from the Fezzan into Djado during this century, then migrating into Ayar. They likely would have had some degree of conflict as well as exchange with the people of Kawar during this period, and perhaps their location in Djado and Ayar woud have led to them being one of the groups once subservient to the mais of Kanem. The mahrams suggest that this process was already underway during the reign of Abd Allah Bakuru, whose own ties to Dirku and the Kawar were strong.
Works Cited
Hamani, Djibo. Au Carrefour Du Soudan Et De La Berbérie: Le Sultanat Touareg De L'Ayar. Niamey: Institut de recherches en sciences humaines, 1989.
Hopkins, J. F. P., and Nehemia Levtzion. Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History. 1st Markus Weiner Publishers ed. Princeton [N.J.]: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2000.
Lange, Dierk. Le Dīwān Des Sultans Du (Kānem-)Bornū: Chronologie Et Histoire D'un Royaume Africain (de La Fin Du Xe Siècle Jusqu'à 1808). Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1977.
Palmer, H. R. The Bornu Sahara and Sudan. London: J. Murray, 1936.
